A D V E N T U R E S   in   C Y B E R S O U N D

Willoughby Smith (b. Great Yarmouth, England April 6, 1828, d. Eastbourne, England, July 17, 1891). At 20 years of age he commenced his lifelong interest in telegraphic signalling and cable laying. He first joined (in 1848) the Gutta Percha Company, London, and soon after commenced experimnenting in insulating iron and copper wires with gutta-percha for telegraphic purposes.

In 1849 his company undertook to supply 30 miles of insulated wire to be laid from Dover to Calais, and during the following year Smith superintended the manufacture and laying of this cable. He was subsequently engaged almost continually in cable work and assisted Sir Charles Wheatstone with his experiments.

In 1854 he laid the first mediterranean cable, between Spezzia and Corsica, Corsica and Sardinia, and later between Sardinia and Cona in Algeria. On his return he was appointed manageer of the Gutta Percha Works which in 1864 were formed into the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company.

In 1865 he was on board the Great Eastern and assisted in laying the cable from Ireland to Newfoundland, and again the following year when the second cable was successfully laid.

His first contribution to wireless appears to have been made in 1883, when he read a paper before the Institution of Electrical Engineers on wireless communication with trains. In his system which was something similar to that subsequently adopted by Edison, he suggested fixing one or more coils of wire between the rails at any convenient distance from the signalling station and sending intermittent currents through them.

Another coil was to be fixed underneath the engine or under the guard's van and telephones connected in the circuit. Then as the train passed over the fixed spirals a signal would be picked up and loudly reproduced in the telphones....in 1885 Edison and Gilliland developed it into a practical system."

Source: Hawks, E., Pioneers of Wireless

In 1873 two English telegraph engineers, Joseph May and Willoughby Smith, experiment with selenium and light, giving inventors a way of transforming images into electrical signals.

also...

Joseph May and Willoughby Smith, telegraph operators in Valentia, Ireland, demonstrate the resistance variations of selenium under the influence of light. Thus is discovered the means to transform images into electric signals. Selenium will become the basis for the manufacture of photoelectric cells.

Source: Xiphias Timetable of Science

Back to the Top | Scientists and Engineers N - Z | Quit | eMail: Dr Russell Naughton